Tze was your typical story of working your way up from nothing, building a huge business, and becomming rich. He put in his will that all his children and their families were to be allowed to live in the house during their lifetimes. He set aside money to pay for the upkeep. The only condition was: No Fighting. If family members got into a disagreement, he appointed someone to decided who would stay and who would go. And, none of his assest were to be sold until the youngest child had died. (They have his will on display in the building).
That happend about 80 years after Tze died, and the family immediately sold everything. The mansion was turned into apartments. Years later they bought it back, started restoring it, and tried to buy back what they could.
The building is a striking, deep blue color. Specifically, it is indigo. The guide pointed out how Chinese in China did things a particular way, but when they came to other countries they realized they had to make compromises. Blue is a very unlucky color in China, I believe "the color of death". But here, the East India Company made indigo and needed people to sell it to. So they made people mix it in to the whitewash to paint their houses. So they compromised and painted their house indigo.
They are big on Fung Shui there, and the guide pointed out the aspects of this built into the house. Tee house is set at a 45 degree angle to the street. It is bad to have a tall building overshadowing the front of your house, so he prevented it by buying that property and built the kitchen for the house there. Chinese houses are built to be symmetric. Chinese houses have a front room where visitors are welcome - and then a gate with doors on each side. You are not welcome past the gate unless it is open, or you are specifically invited in. The gate is opened for special/big events only. But the gate also has carving in it with holes, intended for the girls living in the house to be able to see the young men who have come to conduct business. Also, the Chinese houses here are totally open in the middle- a courtyard with no roof. So it can rain there! The courtyard is sloped, and the roof rain gutters drain into the courtyard in such a way that the water that pools there (it rains HARD when it rains!) will swirl around - stagnant water is bad luck (and breeds mosquitos!). When the water evaporates (which usually happens quickly) it cools the house. The house is made so that you have to step up one step to the back area behind the courtyard. And so on!
On the day we visited they were getting set up for a big event - possibly a wedding. Unfortunately they had set up a huge tent, which made it hard to take pictures.
This is the view from across the street (the building that was the kitchen, now a 5 unit apartment building.
And the front door.
Note the gate I mentioned as you look in through the open front doors.
Their restoration effort won this interesting award:
Our group has twice now had someone join the Penang team for a 1-2 yr assignment. This is where the last person lived with his family:
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